This past Thursday I headed to the gym on Mount Carmel campus and went upstairs to Studio B. The exercise class was called “Bootcamp,” but “You’re going to feel this the next day” is what it should’ve been called. The instructor asked me if I was new because she needed to explain how the class was structured.

We would do a warmup for 15 minutes and then “go hard” for 45 minutes. I nodded my head thinking it’d be easy because I go to the gym twice a week (I know what you’re thinking), and assumed I’d be able to keep up with everyone.

There were about 10 girls in the class and one boy. We all began by running around the room to get our blood pumping. Then we did some high knees, butt kicks and leg swings. After, the instructor broke us up into four groups and assigned each to a different station. Each consisted of workouts that targeted different parts of our bodies. This was fun because we weren’t doing the same thing over and over again.

The next part really cracked me up: we had to do pushups. We did them for 20 seconds and then rested for 10. Repeat. FOR SIX ENTIRE MINUTES. Are you aware of how many pushups that is? Sounds easy. It wasn’t.

After going to the rest of the stations, we held planks for 20 seconds, rested for 10, for five minutes total. The instructor gave us three different ways to do each exercise: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Toward the last few minutes I found myself lying on my stomach for most of them.

“The hardest part of the class was doing the pushups over and over again but I think the class is good for girls and now I don’t have to go to the gym today,” freshman Jack Brady said.

We finished with some stretching, and although it was only one hour, I began to feel it right away. Four days later, I still felt it. Just a warning.